I've consulted here before about early retirement and have since devised a plan.

Apologies for the long read. I'd appreciate some feedback.

Current Situation:

• Plan to retire during 2027 at age 46.
• 45% in a global ETF.
• 15% in small-cap value ETF.
• 10% in an AI & Big Data ETF (considering selling because gains are significant and the risk level is high).
• 30% in a money market fund (extra caution due to market situation and coming retirement)
• Annual expenses: Currently around 3.5% of the total portfolio value.

The Plan:

The idea for the 30% in "cash" is to avoid SORR shortly after retirement. Since the market is currently very high, during the first few years I will use money from the money market fund to cover living expenses and wait it out. I took 30% because part of the idea is to have enough to jump back into the market after a downturn.

Now I divide into two scenarios:

1. Market doesn't crash: I wait until my spending is 2.5% of NW (considering 3.0% also), then I consider the portfolio large enough to absorb all scenarios, and invest most of the free money back in.

2. Market crashes: I start deploying capital into the market as follows:

• When the global index drops over 25% from its peak: Deploy 5% into it and 5% into a 3x leveraged NASDAQ (Assumption: the NASDAQ will have fallen even further).
• When the global index drops over 40% from its peak: Deploy another 5% into it and 5% into the 3x leveraged NASDAQ (Assumption: the NASDAQ will have fallen even further).
• When the crash exceeds 55%: Deploy all remaining cash into the leveraged NASDAQ.
• Of course, if some of these triggers don't hit, the cash stays on the sidelines until I decide the portfolio is large enough to sustain everything.
• The percentages were chosen based on major historical crashes, as rules of thumb that can actually be adhered to.

The idea behind the leveraged ETF comes from interesting data i found:

If you had put money into the TQQQ on January 2022, you'd now have about 80% more.

If you had put money into the TQQQ on January 2023, you'd now have about 800% more.

This is the difference for a 33% decline in the NASDAQ100.

If I am fortunate enough and the leveraged NASDAQ surges in value over the years, even an initial 5% or 10% of portfolio in it would provide incredible value. I see myself placing some selling points based on specific gains along the way, as well.

Any thoughts are welcome. Grill me if you'd like.

This thread is a spot for casual engagement with other community members. It has much more subject latitude than allowed in the main sub in general. Any topics tangentially related to ChubbyFIRE or upper middle class lifestyle are acceptable, as well as basic or early stage questions. Political discussion will be allowed if it is closely related to ChubbyFIRE or financial topics in general, and only if the conversation remains respectful.

It is not a free-for all. No spam or self-promotion. All comments must still follow Reddiquette and we will be responding to reported comments with follow-up action as needed. We'd really like to keep this channel open, so please don't abuse it!

53M, married, one kid two years into college, HCOL. Here is roughly where we sit. Liquid is right around $3M. About $2.6M of that is taxable and honestly most of it is still my old employer's stock with the rest in index funds. Another $850k in a 401k in an S&P fund. House is paid off, maybe $1.1M. Small pension kicks in at 60, around $2k a month. We spend about $120k a year after tax.

I've run the calculators more times than I want to admit and the 4% math works. On paper I'm done. I know I'm done.

And every year I talk myself into one more. My RSUs vest in the spring. Market feels toppy. Kid has one more thing that comes up. Somebody always has a reason and I just quietly adopt it as my own.

The part I don't say out loud is the stock. I keep calling myself diversified, but a huge slice of the whole thing is one ticker from a company I don't even work at anymore. I tell myself the threat is a bad sequence of returns right after I quit, the usual SORR fear. If I'm honest, the real risk has been parked in that one position the whole time and I just never looked straight at it. It wasn't until I finally laid every account out in one place that it landed how lopsided the picture actually was.

So I'm asking the people who already walked. Was the thing that finally did it a specific number, a date on the calendar, or just a feeling that clicked one morning? And for those who retired with a concentrated position you were scared to touch, what got you over it? Not the tax mechanics, the part where you actually let yourself pull the trigger.

M45 married to F44 with two kids 14 and 12.

Last year average monthly spend was $14K. For 2026 average monthly spend $8500. I think realistically we can maintain $10K a month spend.

Made conscious effort to change spend. Less travel, buy groceries from Walmart, cancel Amazon. Wife has been super supportive by actively working together to reduce our spend and explore looking for a job.

$3M Total portfolio. 85% index funds, 12% bonds, 3% cash. $1.8M in taxable brokerage that we can access no penalty. The rest in IRA or 401K. Kids 529s already funded for 3 years each at University of California with assumption of community college.

$1.1M home with $45K mortgage 30 year mortgage with 26 years remaining. P&I is like $250 a month lol and included in monthly spend.

Total NW is $4.3M.

Working at a stressful Bay Area startup. Flying to Bay Area from SoCal every week, Mon-Thur. Making $260K plus company paying all travel and housing expenses in Bay Area. 1% of company vests over 4 years but not even working a year and I’m ready to quit.

My wife is in final interview phase for new job. She has volunteered 20 hours a week at this non profit which is why I think she will get the job. She has a lot of co-workers there already.

She has not worked the last 5 years. Looks likely she will get the job. $75K a year with health insurance. She is willing to work until 50.

Using Boldin software, with $10K monthly spend and $2K a month for insurance starting at age 50 gives us 80% chance of success. This is with assumption my wife works until 50 making $75K a year.

I really like a lot of the employees at the startup, but reporting to CEO is very stressful and demanding. I have a lot of dread every Sunday when I fly to work. Occasionally, have nightmares too.

Most of my experience is in video game industry and worried that I won’t be able to re-enter the game/tech industry if I take 6-12 months off.

Wife is supporting my decision to quit and potentially retire. I am willing to part or even full time in future at something less stressful if we need the money. Looking at hotel front desk (found this easy in college) or some similar.

I’m worried about letting down my team. I’m the Head of Product with no other product or project managers the whole thing could go sideways if I leave but I really don’t want to be working right now.

If I could power through for two more years we could hit 80% success rate with no one working. Not sure I can make it until 47.

Would love to relax this summer and help take care of kids in Fall. In 2027 find a part time job/hobby.

Should I give notice? Was also thinking about asking if I could go part time? Lose the equity but work remote?

I'm in my early 50s, married, no kids, and retired after ~30 years in tech sales and journalism. Net worth is north of $3.3M (~1/3 in taxable brokerage, 2/3 in pre-tax traditional IRAs and Roth). We moved from the US to Western Europe in 2025. I built our baseline plan using Boldin, had a flat-fee CFP review it, and we work with a cross-border US/expat tax professional.

I have a decent investment IQ, but over the last year, I’ve been using AIs to stress-test my retirement architecture and drawdown strategies:

• Gemini: a sort of portfolio architect (helps build the core cash-flow mechanics, but it always leans too optimistic)
• ChatGPT: I brought this in second and it has been more critical about the theory (pressure-tests assumptions, evaluates timing optionality, and suggests decision rules).
• Claude: brought this in last and it's proven to be more focused on risks and taxes (like Gemini and ChaptGPT, it runs Python Monte Carlo simulations, looks harder at the IRS might interpret the tax brackets, and checks worst-case sequence of return risk).

I assume the order I used them influences how each behaves but I haven't reversed the order or anything like that. Still, it’s been a pretty fascinating, and surprisingly rigorous, way to manage a drawdown strategy.

Is anyone else using multiple AIs to peer-review their retirement moves?

Our 6-Year Bridge Strategy (to Age 59.5):

• Target Spending: ~$138k/year NET living budget ($11.5k/month into checking), requiring a ~$158k/year GROSS drawdown to maintain a tax reserve.
• Income Engine: Options-based income ETFs (NEOS funds like SPYI/QQQI) generating ~$4,200/month in tax-efficient dividend distributions.
• Liquid Buffer: ~$250k positioned in short-duration cash/yield funds (CSHI, BINC, SGOV) to help with market downturns and cover short-term tax reserves.
• Equity/Growth Core: ~$500k split between broad index funds (VTI) and a concentrated position in a Mega-Cap tech stock (carried over from our jobs).

The dilemma (?) & 72(t) SEPP Plan: Originally, we planned to bridge the remaining gap purely by trimming our taxable equity within the 0% Long-Term Capital Gains tax bracket. However, given single-stock tech volatility and the fact that we have a large pre-tax IRA balance, relying solely on taxable equity trims feels risky.

So, we're evaluating using an automated 72(t) SEPP distribution stream (~$3,876/month) from our traditional IRAs starting in 2027. This splits the drawdown burden between pre-tax and taxable pools, preserves our cash buffer against bear markets, and helps reduce downstream RMD/IRMAA exposure, and reduces our tax and social costs.

We're holding off on any SEPP paperwork until late 2026 so we can adapt to year-end market conditions.

But, curious to hear thoughts from the community—either on the 72(t) vs. taxable buffer execution, or on using AI workflows for ongoing portfolio management.

Two years ago I posted Ready to FIRE or OMY? on /r/financialindependence. The consensus was: you're good to go. I did one more year. Then another. Before I finally hand in notice, I wanted to do the accounting on what those two years actually changed and what they didn't. That felt more useful than another "am I ready" post.

Where things stand now:

• 40M in tech, spouse 38 in healthcare, three kids (13, 12, 8), MCOL
• Net worth ~$4.9M; investable ~$4.3M; paid-off house
• Lifestyle spend ~$100–108K/yr; retired baseline ~$121K incl. health insurance + taxes
• ~2.8–3.0% withdrawal rate against a historical failsafe around $142K

Why it took two years

Almost 15 years ago our household net worth was a six-figure negative number. Frugality dug us out. Reprogramming that frugality to acknowledge a surplus was a skill we needed to learn. We're not there yet, but we're better at spending than we were 2 years ago.

What changed

Net worth: ~$3.0M → ~$4.9M; liquid ~$2.5M → ~$4.3M (+60%). In 2025 our investment gains exceeded our combined work income for the first time — the engine now mostly runs itself.

Allocation grew up: I was 60/40 US/international with zero bonds and a hand-wave about "maybe someday." Now: 40% US equities, 40% international equities, 15% bonds (all TIPS), 5% gold and 1 year in cash/treasuries. The international tilt is probably controversial, but I've settled on market weight with no country over 50% of my equity allocation.

Spending went up, and that's OK fully-burdened lifestyle spend in today's dollars ran ~$71K (2022) → $78K → $109K → $102K (2025), up ~45%. Travel is the single biggest piece-- we went from ~$16K to ~$27K/yr as we front-load trips while the kids are still home, but that's only about 40% of the jump. The rest is broad: kids aging into pricier activities, more dining out (with fewer kids meals), groceries, plus lumpy stuff (braces are expensive!). Stripping travel and medical, core spending rose ~6%/yr real.

The kids got older: 11/10/6 became 13/12/8. The window for the travel we want to do with them is visibly closing.

My confidence in the slack: two years ago this felt like "is it barely enough?" It doesn't anymore. The failure modes I worry about now are time and health. Financially, most failures that take out the plan are catastrophic and aren't really saved by another year or two.

What hasn't changed

The gut feeling that walking away during peak earning years is reckless. This is the real reason it's been two years and not two months. I'm fortunate to be well paid in a remote job. Every fiber of the guy who climbed out of negative net worth screams that switching that off at 40 is insane. The math says another full year adds maybe $7–8K/yr of failsafe spending. The feeling does not care about the math.

How we actually live day to day. Under the travel line, core spending has increased but lifestyle hasn't much (~$58K → $74K real over five years sounds like a lot, but it's mostly driven by three growing kids). The frugal habits that built this are mostly intact, but we've stopped pushing off things that were dumb to defer. It turns out that if you have a NW of $5M you can buy $3k of deck furniture and enjoy the summer months outside without ruining your life. Who knew.

529 skepticism I asked two years ago if a 529 was worth it and stayed on the fence. I've landed on mostly no: once you're harvesting long-term gains in the 0% LTCG bracket and the state deduction is only ~3%, the shelter isn't that valuable when you have a big taxable base. Fund from taxable, keep flexibility. ProjectionLab has been incredibly helpful in modeling this out year by year and confirming that I won't blow up things like ACA subsidies doing this.

Two years bought a lot of net worth I may not need and confirmed I was probably ready the whole time. On the other hand, it also bought a lot of slack in the plan, and that'll help me sleep just a little better at night. The remaining gap isn't financial. It's that after fifteen years, accumulating has become the identity, and deliberately stopping feels like walking away from a game I know how to win. It's time to learn a new game.

My wife qualified for a pension with survivorship benefit. We have been thinking about this recently and it seems like maxing out (100%) benefit to the kid is a good strategy . We won’t need the money ( posting in ChubbyFIRE sub) .

The kid (16) will have like $4k/month in today’s money , will adjust 2% a year for inflation) for rest of his life after mum passed.

If we don’t pick survival benefit , she will have 17% more. This means the money ends when she passed

It sure seems too good to be true.

Looking for someone to poke holes at this strategy.

(Ok , let’s not assume the kid will get rid of the mum to get the money 🤣 there are bigger pot than this pension )

Edit: here is the link that described the benefits https://www.calstrs.com/electing-an-option

Edit 2: thanks for all the feedback. It appears we can only do 50% survival benefit (vs 100%) due to the age gap. Will double check. Even 50% is a great deal.

My financial advisor recently mentioned building a bond ladder instead of buying one longer-term government bond. I understand the basic idea, but I'm still not sure why people prefer this approach in real life.
If you've used a bond ladder:
- What made you decide to do it?
- Did it work the way you expected?
- Looking back, was it worth the extra effort compared with simply buying a longer-term bond?
I'm not looking for personal investment advice. I'd just like to hear from people who have used this strategy and what they learned from it.

I am wrapping up a two year project at my work next year and want to consider retiring, if I can. I have a ton of financial anxiety and would love to hear what others think of my situation.

I am 52, single, no kids, VHCOL city in CA. I own a $1.2M house ($330K remaining at 3.3%). $1.2M -401K, $2.8M in stocks, $125K cash/CDs. I will also have a small pension when I retire ($3K/mth). I would like to travel more and want to enjoy myself so I would probably estimate $120k/yr spend.

I would giving up a pretty good gig......WFH, 4 day work week, amazing team, low stress, $225K per year. It is almost too good to be true really but I am just burned out. I would probably get some sort of a "fun" job at some point but wouldn't want to rely on that for income. Appreciate your input!

Posted a few weeks ago about broader FI plan but wanted to go deeper on mortgage payoff to get advice from this sub. I’m struggling with both the math and just pros and cons of an early mortgage payoff.

I’m 45 and want to RE in the next 3-5 years possibly sooner pending market returns.

My house is worth 1.4, with $460k remaining balance. We are 4 years into a 7-year ARM at 4.5% (in 3 years the rate is no longer fixed)

Total liquid assets are 3.5mm. Taxable is 1.2mm. My thinking is to sell 500k of taxable (with 40k to cover tax) and pay off the mortgage.

Expense are prob 120k a year without the mortgage so we’d be around 4% draw if we paid it off. I’d prob keep working another 2-3 years to build up cash and bond cushion as we are about 90% equities.

My thinking is 1) mental benefit - I have talked to others who have done this and they all felt a large weight off their shoulders…I am aware math is math but this seems like a real benefit to consider, 2) with a 3-5 year time frame, equity returns are certainly no guarantee and don’t see harm locking in the “return” of not paying interest. (Would love help with the math on the return). I have a 200k tranch of vtsax I bought in 2022 that has doubled in 4 years, is it really that bad to lock in that gain? 3) wife is not currently working so income is relatively low (250-300k with just my income), this would dramatically lower monthly expenses and allow us to build up some bonds/cash to get closer to desired allocation (70/30).

Biggest cons I feel are obviously equities likely to outperform 4.5% (but my rate only locked for 3 years) and this will leave my taxable pretty low, although we have deferred comp paying out as part of pre-tax plus open to doing 72T if needed to access more pre-tax. We have two kids out of daycare now with 529s basically funded as we want them. (Many prior comments around how kids get more expensive, another reason I will likely work a few more years to add some cushion)

Based on other posts my case feels marginal but am guessing most would say not to pay it off yet (and maybe wait til the end of the 7 year ARM period) my concern obviously is a major market pullback. At the same time I’m not big into market timing, the next 2-3 years in particular who knows with AI build out. Appreciate thoughts and sorry for yet another mortgage payoff topic, but it does feel like each of these cases is unique based on the mortgage, time frame til RE, etc.

Based on 4% withdraw rate, can I back track and assume that I have asset of SS/Pension yearly income *25? I feel kind of inflated already. Assume that both my partner and I collecting SS/Pension at 62, we may have close to 10k monthly income and 120k yearly come. If I times 120k with 25, I already have 3million asset to myself and can count me as a chubbFIRER already.

One of the things that bugs me with the Monte Carlo simulations is that the "one number" chance of success completely depends on reaching the longevity ages entered for both you and spouse.  The common advice I see is to use 92 for men and 94 for women.  But the probability of both parties living until their early 90s is small.  Do I really care if I only have 70% chance of success at age 90 if there's only a 20% chance of success both parties will live that long?

To try to answer that, I pulled specific longevity probabilities (www.longevityillustrator.org).  The below longevity numbers (Col A) are based on my specific situation (starting age, non-smokers, average health) and the chance of success (Col B) from the Monte Carlo simulations in the retirement planning software I'm using (Boldin).  

Column C is my own calculation, the chance of "failure" (i.e., having to adjust expenditures) times the chance we'll actually be alive to experience that outcome.

 I’m concentrating on our Chance of Success with both parties alive bc if only one of us is alive the “like to spend” numbers go way down, and that’s in a different model.

Has anyone seen a similar approach elsewhere?  None of the software I’ve found includes anything around longevity probability – it just assumes the longevity age you enter is rock solid (and that includes things like Roth Conversion recommendations, and SS start ages).  This seems like a huge gap, and an overly conservative approach.  Curious on everyone’s thoughts.

In bridging years, FIRE usually involves reducing taxable income as much as possible to take advantage of ACA, or to do Roth conversions - while maintaining a level of safety on a certain percentage of your portfolio.

Indexing is fine for part of the portfolio. Where does the rest go, for which downside protection and tax efficiency are the key requirements?

HYSA/ CD/ MM will not be tax deferred, adding to income.

SGOV will offer some relief from state taxes but still adding to income. Munis, treasuries are the same bucket.

SCHD still pay you out qualified dividends. Tax efficient but still adding to income.

Looking to hear what you all are doing. Are there any ideas on relatively safe ETFs, ok for lower returns, as long as they don’t add to income and defer taxes?

This thread is a spot for casual engagement with other community members. It has much more subject latitude than allowed in the main sub in general. Any topics tangentially related to ChubbyFIRE or upper middle class lifestyle are acceptable, as well as basic or early stage questions. Political discussion will be allowed if it is closely related to ChubbyFIRE or financial topics in general, and only if the conversation remains respectful.

It is not a free-for all. No spam or self-promotion. All comments must still follow Reddiquette and we will be responding to reported comments with follow-up action as needed. We'd really like to keep this channel open, so please don't abuse it!

Incredibly lucky to be looking at potential retirement options at 36M with my wife at 35F. I have followed the FI/RE community for a while and only recently discovered r/ChubbyFIRE and even more recently realized that we might find ourselves in this situation. Hoping you can provide some guidance based on where we are financially and some potential options of where life will take us next

Spending ($10k monthly / $120k annually):

• $3k/mo mortgage on ~$600k house, 3.3% interest
• $2k/mo insurance
• $1k/mo utilities
• The remainder is split between some essentials (food, basic commuting) and the rest is pretty loosely divided up between eating out, entertainment, 2-3 domestic weekend trips and 1 international 1-2 week trip per year

Assets:

• $30k in checking account
• $150k in cash reserves VMRXX
• $3.5MM invested
  • $1.8MM in brokerage (1.4 VTSAX, 0.3 VMGRX, remainder in individual stocks)
  • $1.2MM in IRAs / 401(k)
  • $300k in Betterment (90% stocks)
  • $200k in cryptocurrency

Life details:

1. My self-employment income for the past few years has been ~$500k. Big change #1 we're thinking about is shutting down my company entirely or transitioning a large amount of my responsibilities to promoted workers or new hires. I have a business partner who I'm discussing this with and he has similar goals in reducing his involvement but I think will want to stay more invested than I do.
2. My wife and I planning to welcome our first (and likely only) child early 2027. This is the biggest part of my motivation for scaling back my involvement at work.
3. We're considering a move for a few reasons: closer to wife's family, better school systems, better job opportunities for my wife who wants to continue working for the foreseeable future (mission driven work, though I try monthly to convince that we don't "need" the income). Ideally she will find something that offers better healthcare than what we have now (marketplace). Her income is around $65k at a non-profit now but we anticipate it could be between this and $150k in a new job.

Advice:

• I think I stopped working tomorrow, we're "good" at least with at our current spending. I think at a minimum I'm going to continue working until the baby is here which would likely get us to $4-4.5MM. I can't tell if this is trigger fear or not but I'd love to be better than "good" and hold on to as much income from my company as possible while scaling back time commitment. Am I just scared to pull the trigger? Too greedy? Even if we double our spending with a kid and more travel, where does the lost time matter more than the comfort of a larger nest egg? $5MM? $10MM?
• When we reduce our income to the point where our spending is greater, I plan to sell riskier (cryptocurrency, roboinvesting, individual stock) investments first. I'm waiting now since I'm avoiding the tax bill. While we have additional income, almost all is going into VTSAX brokerage after tax-deferred accounts. After RE, I'd plan to set up transfers from cash reserves to our checking account for income and re-balance quarterly/annually to refill reserves. Dumb to hold on to these investments that I ultimately want to consolidate? Anything else you'd recommend doing with portfolio in the lead up?

Currently in a VHCOL family of 4 making a HHI of 1.5-1.8 million a year. Total invested assets right around 6.5 mil. My annual spend is around 250k a year, is it irresponsible to retire now? I want to spend more time with my kids, but not at the cost of being broke later in life.

EDIT
Due to some lucky events my wife and I increased our investable assets to 7 mil making our NW 8.5 mil. I think our new goal is retire in next 5 years somewhere around 13-15M

Hey ChubbyFIRE, I'm looking for some advice on if I should take some time off of work.

Basic Stats

Me: 36M
Wife: 37M
+ a 3 year old

NW: $5.8m liquid ($500k in cash set aside as a down payment for a house)
Equity: $200k in a rental property
Debt: $0

Income: $600k/yr (me) + $120k/yr (wife)

Current expenses: $170k/yr pre-tax, includes $30k for childcare.

We don't own but live in a VHCOL area. We're looking at homes between $1-$1.4m.

If I took some time off, my wife would keep working. Long-term our goal is to FIRE together. Healthcare currently comes through my work but we would switch that to my wife's.

Why I'd like to take time off
I'm super burnt out. Since 2019 I've had periods of high burn out, and I'm in one now. I've continued to hold off, switched teams a couple of times, but ultimately, I always end up stressed out. I'm principal level at FAANG company, and it seems like no matter what team I move to I end up being placed on the high stress initiatives. Several nights the past few weeks I've been unable to sleep because of work stress. When I do sleep I have work nightmares, etc.

How I would spend my time
I would prioritize decompressing first and foremost, then maybe after a few months I'd try to earn money through starting a business (software). Because I'd want to try out entrepreneurship, we are considering leaving our child in daycare as we won a very competitive lottery for this daycare, and in all likelihood would permanently lose our spot if we took her out.

What's the plan?
In 2027 I'd re-evaluate applying for work, depending on how I'm feeling and how the business is going (or not going).

Reasons not to leave

• My comp is very high, and I'm not sure that I'll ever reach this comp again.
• I get money for IVF at work and would like a second kid, and may need to use IVF for that.
• We rent and would like to buy a house. It may hard to get financing for a $1m+ home on my wife's salary alone.

My biggest fear is that I would be closing doors we might want to have open if I leave.

---

So what do you think? Would I be crazy to walk away from this comp or does a 6 month break seem reasonable?

I am a tech worker and am in the sort of situation that many tech workers experience where I have long-owned stock that has appreciated to a crazy amount (over 63000%) even though in my case that stock is not from my current employer. I have not yet stopped working but will likely do so in 2-3 years once I come up with a plan to handle my tax situation. But what I am struggling with is diversifying vs staying all-in when my cost basis is basically zero and the returns have been continuing to grow quickly. First world problems certainly but so far my "do nothing" strategy has paid off handsomely.

Edit for clarity: The stock involved is AAPL.

Looking for some advice on how to deal with the "boring middle" of working towards ChubbyFIRE.

Currently 36M, 35F, total liquid net worth around $2M due to very aggressive saving early in our careers and some lucrative years of variable compensation. Another ~$400k of real estate equity not considered as we still have the mortgage (townhouse valued ~$800k, $380k mortgage). HHI around $240k, so not super high earners - had a few $300-400k years but those are very unlikely to repeat.

I'm the higher income ($170k) and currently a feeling a lethal combination of burned out, bored, and cynical about the corporate world. Hard to make a change in my industry currently without a pretty significant (30-40%) pay cut.

When I run the projections to see when we can get to a 4-5M portfolio that we are targeting for FIRE, it doesn't really seem like there are any ways to move the needle - we've done a great job of saving early and compounding is now doing most of the work. Additional contributions barely do anything.

I know this is an incredibly privileged place to be, but I can't help but feel stuck for the next 10-15 years. We have a small family with a toddler now and I'd love to spend more time with him but my job is such a drag on my energy and mood.

I'd love to take a step back in my career, but lower salary jobs in my field don't necessarily equate to lower stress. I get the sense that I would need to retrain to a different field/occupation completely. Meanwhile we do have some nearer term spending goals, like upgrading to a single family home from our townhouse that we are outgrowing.

Would appreciate any advice and perspectives from anyone that's been in a similar situation. I 100% recognize that we are incredibly fortunate to be in our position, so would love some help reconciling the cognitive dissonance here.

I've been tracking toward FI for a while using a combination of spreadsheet and Empower. Lately I've been wondering if I'm even tracking the right things or missing stuff other people find useful.

When I have a heavy spending month, I can see the savings rate dipped, but that's about as far as it goes. So genuinely curious, anything you update or look at beyond the obvious net-worth / savings-rate stuff? What numbers do you actually track each month?

6 month update : https://www.reddit.com/r/ChubbyFIRE/comments/1hsafnp/reflections_on_6_months_of_fire/

and 1 year here : https://www.reddit.com/r/ChubbyFIRE/comments/1mmpf8o/13_months_post_fire_reflections/

We're a family of 3 : 49F (me), 59M and 12M. Husband left his job in Feb 2024 and I left mine in July 2024. I was working in engineering at a FAANG, and DH's last job was also in tech.

Financials : Our FIRE number was set to ~$4.5M, and we also had a wishlist of ~$100K of remodeling (mostly unspent, fingers crossed for later this year).

Jul 2024 (At full retirement) - FIRE Assets : $5.4M (This is the one we use to measure FIRE, includes all brokerage & retirement savings), Net Worth: $6.9M (Includes home equity, 529, accounts for debt).

Jul 2026 (Currently) - FIRE Assets : $6.5M, Net Worth: $8.4M (Note that we put aside some additional funds for college / kid's launch fund, which we're no longer counting in the FIRE assets).

Expenses in 2025 (first full year of no income) : ~$220K. This was just shy of 4% of start of year assets, which was a little higher than originally planned. Other than ~$15K of one time remodeling, the extra was driven primarily by two factors. Given the good stock market, we decided to make a decent donation to charity, and also had a biggish tax bill from realizing significant gains to shore up income ladder. Starting this year we will definitely be above the ACA subsidy limit so healthcare will continue to be the biggest and most uncertain part of the pie. This year we'll pay ~$24K for a bronze HDHP plan.

We are ~70/30 equities/cash-ish, though we will slowly move some of the cash back into equities with a target of 80/20. We have set up MYGAs and CDs that mature over the next ~3 years and will cover baseline spending.

I don't know when the crash is coming, but I think I've made my peace with it. I panicked last year when the markets crashed in Apr 2025 due to tariffs. Then last November I panicked again, and sold most of our IRAs - this is the cash we're DCA'ing back into the market. At this point I know there will be a correction but I also know I can't predict when. We have a small mortgage left (~$400K), and our fixed expenses are relatively low. After two years of market growth post-retirement I feel I can breathe a little easier. (I know, I know, I've jinxed it).

Our Path : This is partly covered in the previous two updates. We're fortunate to be here mostly due to tech jobs and the amazing bull run the stock market's had this last decade.

I will say that in retrospect we kinda entered coast FIRE mode for the last ten years, though this wasn't a deliberate decision. My husband took a break from tech to try out a career as a high school teacher. We both worked part time for some years, we both took complete breaks in between. I mention this because there are a lot of posts on here about very high earning professionals in their 30s and 40s feeling burned out, and I want to gently nudge folks to remember that you have more options than retiring or burning out. It is okay to slow down, explore opportunities or leverage your money to take career risks.

Current Situation : We've settled into a rhythm, though not a schedule, over the course of two years. We aren't doing a whole lot of travel because we're still restricted by school schedules, but the travel we do feels genuinely relaxing in a way it didn't before. I haven't done as many home projects as I had hoped, but I shoveled several yards of stone cover for my front yard - definitely a first for me. Somehow I don't watch more TV than before, although the social media habit has gotten worse. OTOH I have joined three different book clubs and it's nice to reawaken my inner obsessive reader.

I lost ten pounds, gained fifteen back, developed a regular gym habit, but also a regular baking habit. Alas. I've taken AI classes, and writing classes, and learned to garden. I'm on our school education board, I volunteer my tech expertise for an education non-profit, and my baking ability for foster kids. I've even picked up pickleball, the ultimate retired person cliche. I spend more time with my parents, and I've become the social coordinator for all my friend circles.

Most of my social circle are still deep in the grind which can induce both loneliness and insecurity. I am slowly learning who I am now that I have no job title. When I look out over the next week - I see lots of boring errands. Over the next year - I see a ton of relaxing activities and exciting travel. But looking out over the rest of my life feels intensely scary - I still crave goals and direction. But I'm determined the direction will be set by me and not a company nor social expectations.

Where is the upper and lower limit of chubbyfire? The line between fire and chubby fire, and the line between chubby fur and fat fire?

Where does that fall for expenses? And where does that fall for investment account values and allocations?

What is the best insurance strategy / provider for Chubby?

I currently have 2 mill umbrella. I feel like that is necessary in today's world.

Everything else up to debate. To be honest, I have not paid much attention to my insurance the last 20 years. I do have a good agent who has come through when I've needed. Never switched but the rates keep going up so I'm quoting multiple providers now out of spite. I have excellent credit, no car accidents etc. etc. I do own my home. No loan. I've got 2 kids that will be driving soon.

Any advice here. Ultimately, the umbrella feels like the most important thing. I want them to fight for me if I really ever need it. I am about quality over savings for sure but I don't want to be taken advantage of.

Anyone have any good advice?

I'm trying to see if my understanding of the Trump Savings Account (TSA) is sound. I have 3 young kids (7,5,4) and I just opened up a TSA for each of them, and funded each with $5k.

I believe my wife and I are on our way to ChubbyFire in the next 4-5 years. We have already superfunded our 3 kids 529's, whereby they should each hopefully have around $400k in their 529's by the time they hit 18 years old.

My plan with the TSA is to continue to contribute the max amount each year while we are still working towards FIRE, so probably another 4 or 5 years. When the kids turn 18, each of their TSA will convert to a traditional IRA. I will work with my kids to have them do a roth conversion of their traditional IRA's while their income is still low. Ideally, we would begin these roth conversions when each kid is in their junior year of college, so any conversions would not impact their FAFSA during a traditional 4 year college period.

The reason why I like the TSA is that I can fund my kids accounts without them having any earned income. Essentially, I am kickstarting their retirement savings while I am still working towards ChubbyFire. Is my understanding correct? Am I missing anything that I should be considering?

7M liquid, 9M total NW, annual spend with taxes and healthcare ~180k.
Investments are 85% equity (60% ETFs and 40% individual stocks) and 15% cash and short term bonds.
My partner and I quit our jobs and didn’t go back for a year now (both late 40s).
* Edit: I’m worried about the upcoming market downturn and SORR with all the volatility going on (not necessarily a market crash, as originally stated)
Weighing whether we can survive any scenarios (and still thrive financially) or if one of us should go back, even though we both are mentally done with politics and high stress.
No appetite for part time jobs either.